Exploring the relationship between body satisfaction, self-compassion and dymorphism among Italian adolescents

Several studies showed the strong association between body satisfaction and dymorphism and more recently authors also started to investigate the role of self-compassion, that is the act of being kind and understanding towards oneself in moments of distress. To date, there are no studies on this topic in Italy. The present study aimed at exploring the associations between these variables and at investigating the moderating role of one component of self-compassion (i.e self-judgment) on the relationship between body satisfaction and dymorphism. Participants were 94 Italian adolescents (MAge=14.47), who completed a questionnaire investigating: body self-esteem, dymorphism and self-compassion. Preliminarily, bivariate correlations were conducted to investigate the associations between body satisfaction, dymorphism and self-compassion. Several significant and strong correlations emerged. Then, to examine the moderator role of self-judgment, a hierarchical multiple regression model was computed. The model showed that body satisfaction (β=-.785 p<.001) significantly explained dymorphism. A significant interaction effect was found (β=-.216 p<.001) showing the moderating role of self-judgment. The model explained the 73% of the variance of the dependent variable (F= 81.672 p<.001). Results highlight the importance of considering the attitude towards oneself in understanding dymorphism among adolescents and suggest interesting cues for interventions and clinical practice.